Chapter XXV.
"And this," said I, with my mind full of what I had witnessed-
"this, I presume, is your usual form of burial?"
"Our invariable form," answered Aph-Lin. "What is it amongst
your people?"
"We inter the body whole within the earth."
"What! To degrade the form you have loved and honoured, the
wife on whose breast you have slept, to the loathsomeness of
corruption?"
126
"But if the soul lives again, can it matter whether the body
waste within the earth or is reduced by that awful mechanism,
worked, no doubt by the agency of vril, into a pinch of dust?"
"You answer well," said my host, "and there is no arguing on a
matter of feeling; but to me your custom is horrible and
repulsive, and would serve to invest death with gloomy and
hideous associations. It is something, too, to my mind, to be
able to preserve the token of what has been our kinsman or
friend within the abode in which we live. We thus feel more
sensibly that he still lives, though not visibly so to us. But
our sentiments in this, as in all things, are created by
custom. Custom is not to be changed by a wise An, any more
than it is changed by a wise Community, without the greatest
deliberation, followed by the most earnest conviction. It is
only thus that change ceases to be changeability, and once made
is made for good.
When we regained the house, Aph-Lin summoned some of the
children in his service and sent them round to several of his
friends, requesting their attendance that day, during the Easy
Hours, to a festival in honour of his kinsman's recall to the
All-Good. This was the largest and gayest assembly I ever
witnessed during my stay among the Ana, and was prolonged far
into the Silent Hours.
The banquet was spread in a vast chamber reserved especially
for grand occasions. This differed from our entertainments,
and was not without a certain resemblance to those we read of
in the luxurious age of the Roman empire. There was not one
great table set out, but numerous small tables, each
appropriated to eight guests. It is considered that beyond
that number conversation languishes and friendship cools. The
Ana never laugh loud, as I have before observed, but the
cheerful ring of their voices at the various tables betokened
gaiety of intercourse. As they have no stimulant drinks, and
are temperate in food, though so choice and dainty, the banquet
itself did not last long. The tables sank through the floor,
127and then came musical entertainments for those who liked them.
Many, however, wandered away:- some of the younger ascended in
their wings, for the hall was roofless, forming aerial dances;
others strolled through the various apartments, examining the
curiosities with which they were stored, or formed themselves
into groups for various games, the favourite of which is a
complicated kind of chess played by eight persons. I mixed
with the crowd, but was prevented joining in the conversation
by the constant companionship of one or the other of my host's
sons, appointed to keep me from obtrusive questionings. The
guests, however, noticed me but slightly; they had grown
accustomed to my appearance, seeing me so often in the streets,
and I had ceased to excite much curiosity.
To my great delight Zee avoided me, and evidently sought to
excite my jealousy by marked attentions to a very handsome
young An, who (though, as is the modest custom of the males
when addressed by females, he answered with downcast eyes and
blushing cheeks, and was demure and shy as young ladies new to
the world are in most civilised countries, except England and
America) was evidently much charmed by the tall Gy, and ready
to falter a bashful "Yes" if she had actually proposed.
Fervently hoping that she would, and more and more averse to
the idea of reduction to a cinder after I had seen the rapidity
with which a human body can be hurried into a pinch of dust, I
amused myself by watching the manners of the other young
people. I had the satisfaction of observing that Zee was no
singular assertor of a female's most valued rights. Wherever I
turned my eyes, or lent my ears, it seemed to me that the Gy
was the wooing party, and the An the coy and reluctant one.
The pretty innocent airs which an An gave himself on being thus
courted, the dexterity with which he evaded direct answers to
professions of attachment, or turned into jest the flattering
compliments addressed to him, would have done honour to the
128most accomplished coquette. Both my male chaperons were
subjected greatly to these seductive influences, and both
acquitted themselves with wonderful honour to their tact and
self-control.
I said to the elder son, who preferred mechanical employments
to the management of a great property, and who was of an
eminently philosophical temperament,- "I find it difficult to
conceive how at your age, and with all the intoxicating effects
on the senses, of music and lights and perfumes, you can be so
cold to that impassioned young Gy who has just left you with
tears in her eyes at your cruelty."
The young An replied with a sigh, "Gentle Tish, the greatest
misfortune in life is to marry one Gy if you are in love with
another."
"Oh! You are in love with another?"
"Alas! Yes."
"And she does not return your love?"
"I don't know. Sometimes a look, a tone, makes me hope so; but
she has never plainly told me that she loves me."
"Have you not whispered in her own ear that you love her?"
"Fie! What are you thinking of? What world do you come from?
Could I so betray the dignity of my sex? Could I be so un-Anly-
so lost to shame, as to own love to a Gy who has not first
owned hers to me?"
"Pardon: I was not quite aware that you pushed the modesty of
your sex so far. But does no An ever say to a Gy, 'I love
you,' till she says it first to him?"
"I can't say that no An has ever done so, but if he ever does,
he is disgraced in the eyes of the Ana, and secretly despised
by the Gy-ei. No Gy, well brought up, would listen to him; she
would consider that he audaciously infringed on the rights of
her sex, while outraging the modesty which dignifies his own.
It is very provoking," continued the An, "for she whom I love
has certainly courted no one else, and I cannot but think she
likes me. Sometimes I suspect that she does not court me
because she fears I would ask some unreasonable settlement as
129to the surrender of her rights. But if so, she cannot really
love me, for where a Gy really loves she forgoes all rights."
"Is this young Gy present?"
"Oh yes. She sits yonder talking to my mother."
I looked in the direction to which my eyes were thus guided,
and saw a Gy dressed in robes of bright red, which among this
people is a sign that a Gy as yet prefers a single state. She
wears gray, a neutral tint, to indicate that she is looking
about for a spouse; dark purple if she wishes to intimate that
she has made a choice; purple and orange when she is betrothed
or married; light blue when she is divorced or a widow, and
would marry again. Light blue is of course seldom seen.
Among a people where all are of so high a type of beauty, it is
difficult to single out one as peculiarly handsome. My young
friend's choice seemed to me to possess the average of good
looks; but there was an expression in her face that pleased me
more than did the faces of the young Gy-ei generally, because
it looked less bold- less conscious of female rights. I
observed that, while she talked to Bra, she glanced, from time
to time, sidelong at my young friend.
"Courage," said I, "that young Gy loves you."
"Ay, but if she shall not say so, how am I the better for her love?"
"Your mother is aware of your attachment?"
"Perhaps so. I never owned it to her. It would be un-Anly to
confide such weakness to a mother. I have told my father; he
may have told it again to his wife."
"Will you permit me to quit you for a moment and glide behind
your mother and your beloved? I am sure they are talking about
you. Do not hesitate. I promise that I will not allow myself
to be questioned till I rejoin you."
The young An pressed his hand on his heart, touched me lightly
on the head, and allowed me to quit his side. I stole
unobserved behind his mother and his beloved. I overheard
their talk.
130
Bra was speaking; said she, "There can be no doubt of this:
either my son, who is of marriageable age, will be decoyed into
marriage with one of his many suitors, or he will join those
who emigrate to a distance and we shall see him no more. If
you really care for him, my dear Lo, you should propose."
"I do care for him, Bra; but I doubt if I could really ever win
his affections. He is fond of his inventions and timepieces;
and I am not like Zee, but so dull that I fear I could not
enter into his favourite pursuits, and then he would get tired
of me, and at the end of three years divorce me, and I could
never marry another- never."
"It is not necessary to know about timepieces to know how to be
so necessary to the happiness of an An, who cares for
timepieces, that he would rather give up the timepieces than
divorce his Gy. You see, my dear Lo," continued Bra, "that
precisely because we are the stronger sex, we rule the other
provided we never show our strength. If you were superior to
my son in making timepieces and automata, you should, as his
wife, always let him suppose you thought him superior in that
art to yourself. The An tacitly allows the pre-eminence of the
Gy in all except his own special pursuit. But if she either
excels him in that, or affects not to admire him for his
proficiency in it, he will not love her very long; perhaps he
may even divorce her. But where a Gy really loves, she soon
learns to love all that the An does."
The young Gy made no answer to this address. She looked down
musingly, then a smile crept over her lips, and she rose, still
silent, and went through the crowd till she paused by the young
An who loved her. I followed her steps, but discreetly stood
at a little distance while I watched them. Somewhat to my
surprise, till I recollected the coy tactics among the Ana, the
lover seemed to receive her advances with an air of
indifference. He even moved away, but she pursued his steps,
131and, a little time after, both spread their wings and vanished
amid the luminous space above.
Just then I was accosted by the chief magistrate, who mingled
with the crowd distinguished by no signs of deference or
homage. It so happened that I had not seen this great
dignitary since the day I had entered his dominions, and
recalling Aph-Lin's words as to his terrible doubt whether or
not I should be dissected, a shudder crept over me at the sight
of his tranquil countenance.
"I hear much of you, stranger, from my son Taee," said the Tur,
laying his hand politely on my bended head. "He is very fond
of your society, and I trust you are not displeased with the
customs of our people."
I muttered some unintelligible answer, which I intended to be
an assurance of my gratitude for the kindness I had received
from the Tur, and my admiration of his countrymen, but the
dissecting-knife gleamed before my mind's eye and choked my
utterance. A softer voice said, "My brother's friend must be
dear to me." And looking up I saw a young Gy, who might be
sixteen years old, standing beside the magistrate and gazing at
me with a very benignant countenance. She had not come to her
full growth, and was scarcely taller than myself (viz., about 5
feet 10 inches), and, thanks to that comparatively diminutive
stature, I thought her the loveliest Gy I had hitherto seen. I
suppose something in my eyes revealed that impression, for her
countenance grew yet more benignant.
"Taee tells me," she said, "that you have not yet learned to
accustom yourself to wings. That grieves me, for I should have
liked to fly with you."
"Alas!" I replied, "I can never hope to enjoy that happiness.
I am assured by Zee that the safe use of wings is a hereditary
gift, and it would take generations before one of my race could
poise himself in the air like a bird."
132"Let not that thought vex you too much," replied this amiable
Princess, "for, after all, there must come a day when Zee and
myself must resign our wings forever. Perhaps when that day
comes we might be glad if the An we chose was also without
wings."
The Tur had left us, and was lost amongst the crowd. I began
to feel at ease with Taee's charming sister, and rather
startled her by the boldness of my compliment in replying,
"that no An she could choose would ever use his wings to fly
away from her." It is so against custom for an An to say such
civil things to a Gy till she has declared her passion for him,
and been accepted as his betrothed, that the young maiden stood
quite dumbfounded for a few moments. Nevertheless she did not
seem displeased. At last recovering herself, she invited me to
accompany her into one of the less crowded rooms and listen to
the songs of the birds. I followed her steps as she glided
before me, and she led me into a chamber almost deserted. A
fountain of naphtha was playing in the centre of the room;
round it were ranged soft divans, and the walls of the room
were open on one side to an aviary in which the birds were
chanting their artful chorus. The Gy seated herself on one of
the divans, and I placed myself at her side. "Taee tells me,"
she said, "that Aph-Lin has made it the law* of his house that
you are not to be questioned as to the country you come from or
the reason why you visit us. Is it so?"
* Literally "has said, In this house be it requested." Words
synonymous with law, as implying forcible obligation, are
avoided by this singular people. Even had it been decreed by
the Tur that his College of Sages should dissect me, the decree
would have ran blandly thus,- "Be it requested that, for the
good of the community, the carnivorous Tish be requested to
submit himself to dissection."
"It is."
"May I, at least, without sinning against that law, ask at
least if the Gy-ei in your country are of the same pale colour
as yourself, and no taller?"
"I do not think, O beautiful Gy, that I infringe the law of
Aph-Lin, which is more binding on myself than any one, if I
133answer questions so innocent. The Gy-ei in my country are much
fairer of hue than I am, and their average height is at least a
head shorter than mine."
"They cannot then be so strong as the Ana amongst you? But I
suppose their superior vril force makes up for such extraordinary
disadvantage of size?"
"They do not profess the vril force as you know it. But still
they are very powerful in my country, and an An has small
chance of a happy life if he be not more or less governed by
his Gy."
"You speak feelingly," said Taee's sister, in a tone of voice
half sad, half petulant. "You are married, of course."
"No- certainly not."
"Nor betrothed?"
"Nor betrothed."
"Is it possible that no Gy has proposed to you?"
"In my country the Gy does not propose; the An speaks first."
"What a strange reversal of the laws of nature!" said the maiden,
"and what want of modesty in your sex! But have you never proposed,
never loved one Gy more than another?"
I felt embarrassed by these ingenious questionings, and said,
"Pardon me, but I think we are beginning to infringe upon
Aph-Lin's injunction. This much only will I answer, and then,
I implore you, ask no more. I did once feel the preference you
speak of; I did propose, and the Gy would willingly have
accepted me, but her parents refused their consent."
"Parents! Do you mean seriously to tell me that parents can
interfere with the choice of their daughters?"
"Indeed they can, and do very often."
"I should not like to live in that country, said the Gy simply;
"but I hope you will never go back to it."
I bowed my head in silence. The Gy gently raised my face with
her right hand, and looked into it tenderly. "Stay with us,"
she said; "stay with us, and be loved."
134
What I might have answered, what dangers of becoming a cinder I
might have encountered, I still trouble to think, when the
light of the naphtha fountain was obscured by the shadow of
wings; and Zee, flying though the open roof, alighted beside
us. She said not a word, but, taking my arm with her mighty
hand, she drew me away, as a mother draws a naughty child, and
led me through the apartments to one of the corridors, on
which, by the mechanism they generally prefer to stairs, we
ascended to my own room. This gained, Zee breathed on my
forehead, touched my breast with her staff, and I was instantly
plunged into a profound sleep.
When I awoke some hours later, and heard the songs of the birds
in the adjoining aviary, the remembrance of Taee's sister, her
gentle looks and caressing words, vividly returned to me; and
so impossible is it for one born and reared in our upper
world's state of society to divest himself of ideas dictated by
vanity and ambition, that I found myself instinctively building
proud castles in the air.
"Tish though I be," thus ran my meditations- "Tish though I be,
it is then clear that Zee is not the only Gy whom my appearance
can captivate. Evidently I am loved by A PRINCESS, the first
maiden of this land, the daughter of the absolute Monarch whose
autocracy they so idly seek to disguise by the republican title
of chief magistrate. But for the sudden swoop of that horrible
Zee, this Royal Lady would have formally proposed to me; and
though it may be very well for Aph-Lin, who is only a
subordinate minister, a mere Commissioner of Light, to threaten
me with destruction if I accept his daughter's hand, yet a
Sovereign, whose word is law, could compel the community to
abrogate any custom that forbids intermarriage with one of a
strange race, and which in itself is a contradiction to their
boasted equality of ranks.
"It is not to be supposed that his daughter, who spoke with
such incredulous scorn of the interference of parents, would
135not have sufficient influence with her Royal Father to save me
from the combustion to which Aph-Lin would condemn my form.
And if I were exalted by such an alliance, who knows but what
the Monarch might elect me as his successor? Why not? Few among
this indolent race of philosophers like the burden of such
greatness. All might be pleased to see the supreme power
lodged in the hands of an accomplished stranger who has
experience of other and livelier forms of existence; and once
chosen, what reforms I would institute! What additions to the
really pleasant but too monotonous life of this realm my
familiarity with the civilised nations above ground would
effect! I am fond of the sports of the field. Next to war, is
not the chase a king's pastime? In what varieties of strange
game does this nether world abound? How interesting to strike
down creatures that were known above ground before the Deluge!
But how? By that terrible vril, in which, from want of
hereditary transmission, I could never be a proficient? No, but
by a civilised handy breech-loader, which these ingenious
mechanicians could not only make, but no doubt improve; nay,
surely I saw one in the Museum. Indeed, as absolute king, I
should discountenance vril altogether, except in cases of war.
Apropos of war, it is perfectly absurd to stint a people so
intelligent, so rich, so well armed, to a petty limit of
territory sufficing for 10,000 or 12,000 families. Is not this
restriction a mere philosophical crotchet, at variance with the
aspiring element in human nature, such as has been partially,
and with complete failure, tried in the upper world by the late
Mr. Robert Owen? Of course one would not go to war with the
neighbouring nations as well armed as one's own subjects; but
then, what of those regions inhabited by races unacquainted
with vril, and apparently resembling, in their democratic
institutions, my American countrymen? One might invade them
without offence to the vril nations, our allies, appropriate
their territories, extending, perhaps, to the most distant
136regions of the nether earth, and thus rule over an empire in
which the sun never sets. (I forgot, in my enthusiasm, that
over those regions there was no sun to set). As for the
fantastical notion against conceding fame or renown to an
eminent individual, because, forsooth, bestowal of honours
insures contest in the pursuit of them, stimulates angry
passions, and mars the felicity of peace- it is opposed to the
very elements, not only of the human, but of the brute
creation, which are all, if tamable, participators in the
sentiment of praise and emulation. What renown would be given
to a king who thus extended his empire! I should be deemed a
demigod." Thinking of that, the other fanatical notion of
regulating this life by reference to one which, no doubt, we
Christians firmly believe in, but never take into
consideration, I resolved that enlightened philosophy compelled
me to abolish a heathen religion so superstitiously at variance
with modern thought and practical action. Musing over these
various projects, I felt how much I should have liked at that
moment to brighten my wits by a good glass of whiskey-and-water.
Not that I am habitually a spirit-drinker, but certainly there
are times when a little stimulant of alcoholic nature, taken
with a cigar, enlivens the imagination. Yes; certainly among
these herbs and fruits there would be a liquid from which one
could extract a pleasant vinous alcohol; and with a steak cut
off one of those elks (ah! what offence to science to reject
the animal food which our first medical men agree in
recommending to the gastric juices of mankind!) one would
certainly pass a more exhilirating hour of repast. Then, too,
instead of those antiquated dramas performed by childish
amateurs, certainly, when I am king, I will introduce our
modern opera and a 'corps de ballet,' for which one might find,
among the nations I shall conquer, young females of less
formidable height and thews than the Gy-ei- not armed with
vril, and not insisting upon one's marrying them.
I was so completely rapt in these and similar reforms,
137political, social, and moral, calculated to bestow on the
people of the nether world the blessings of a civilisation
known to the races of the upper, that I did not perceive that
Zee had entered the chamber till I heard a deep sigh, and,
raising my eyes, beheld her standing by my couch.
I need not say that, according to the manners of this people, a
Gy can, without indecorum, visit an An in his chamber, although
an An would be considered forward and immodest to the last
degree if he entered the chamber of a Gy without previously
obtaining her permission to do so. Fortunately I was in the
full habiliments I had worn when Zee had deposited me on the
couch. Nevertheless I felt much irritated, as well as shocked,
by her visit, and asked in a rude tone what she wanted.
"Speak gently, beloved one, I entreat you," said she, "for I am
very unhappy. I have not slept since we parted."
"A due sense of your shameful conduct to me as your father's
guest might well suffice to banish sleep from your eyelids.
Where was the affection you pretend to have for me, where was
even that politeness on which the Vril-ya pride themselves,
when, taking advantage alike of that physical strength in which
your sex, in this extraordinary region, excels our own, and of
those detestable and unhallowed powers which the agencies of
vril invest in your eyes and finger-ends, you exposed me to
humiliation before your assembled visitors, before Her Royal
Highness- I mean, the daughter of your own chief magistrate,-
carrying me off to bed like a naughty infant, and plunging me
into sleep, without asking my consent?"
"Ungrateful! Do you reproach me for the evidences of my love?
Can you think that, even if unstung by the jealousy which attends
upon love till it fades away in blissful trust when we know that
the heart we have wooed is won, I could be indifferent to the
perils to which the audacious overtures of that silly little
child might expose you?"
138"Hold! Since you introduce the subject of perils, it perhaps
does not misbecome me to say that my most imminent perils come
from yourself, or at least would come if I believed in your
love and accepted your addresses. Your father has told me
plainly that in that case I should be consumed into a cinder
with as little compunction as if I were the reptile whom Taee
blasted into ashes with the flash of his wand."
"Do not let that fear chill your heart to me," exclaimed Zee,
dropping on her knees and absorbing my right hand in the space
of her ample palm. "It is true, indeed, that we two cannot wed
as those of the same race wed; true that the love between us
must be pure as that which, in our belief, exists between
lovers who reunite in the new life beyond that boundary at
which the old life ends. But is it not happiness enough to be
together, wedded in mind and in heart? Listen: I have just left
my father. He consents to our union on those terms. I have
sufficient influence with the College of Sages to insure their
request to the Tur not to interfere with the free choice of a
Gy; provided that her wedding with one of another race be but
the wedding of souls. Oh, think you that true love needs
ignoble union? It is not that I yearn only to be by your side
in this life, to be part and parcel of your joys and sorrows
here: I ask here for a tie which will bind us for ever and for
ever in the world of immortals. Do you reject me?"
As she spoke, she knelt, and the whole character of her face
was changed; nothing of sternness left to its grandeur; a
divine light, as that of an immortal, shining out from its
human beauty. But she rather awed me as an angel than moved me
as a woman, and after an embarrassed pause, I faltered forth
evasive expressions of gratitude, and sought, as delicately as
I could, to point out how humiliating would be my position
amongst her race in the light of a husband who might never be
permitted the name of father.
"But," said Zee, "this community does not constitute the whole
world. No; nor do all the populations comprised in the league
139of the Vril-ya. For thy sake I will renounce my country and my
people. We will fly together to some region where thou shalt
be safe. I am strong enough to bear thee on my wings across
the deserts that intervene. I am skilled enough to cleave
open, amidst the rocks, valleys in which to build our home.
Solitude and a hut with thee would be to me society and the
universe. Or wouldst thou return to thine own world, above the
surface of this, exposed to the uncertain seasons, and lit but
by the changeful orbs which constitute by thy description the
fickle character of those savage regions? I so, speak the word,
and I will force the way for thy return, so that I am thy
companion there, though, there as here, but partner of thy
soul, and fellow traveller with thee to the world in which
there is no parting and no death."
I could not but be deeply affected by the tenderness, at once
so pure and so impassioned, with which these words were
uttered, and in a voice that would have rendered musical the
roughest sounds in the rudest tongue. And for a moment it did
occur to me that I might avail myself of Zee's agency to effect
a safe and speedy return to the upper world. But a very brief
space for reflection sufficed to show me how dishonourable and
base a return for such devotion it would be to allure thus
away, from her own people and a home in which I had been so
hospitably treated, a creature to whom our world would be so
abhorrent, and for whose barren, if spiritual love, I could not
reconcile myself to renounce the more human affection of mates
less exalted above my erring self. With this sentiment of duty
towards the Gy combined another of duty towards the whole race
I belonged to. Could I venture to introduce into the upper
world a being so formidably gifted- a being that with a
movement of her staff could in less than an hour reduce New
York and its glorious Koom-Posh into a pinch of snuff? Rob her
of her staff, with her science she could easily construct
another; and with the deadly lightnings that armed the slender
engine her whole frame was charged. If thus dangerous to the
140cities and populations of the whole upper earth, could she be a
safe companion to myself in case her affection should be
subjected to change or embittered by jealousy? These thoughts,
which it takes so many words to express, passed rapidly through
my brain and decided my answer.
"Zee," I said, in the softest tones I could command and
pressing respectful lips on the hand into whose clasp mine
vanished- "Zee, I can find no words to say how deeply I am
touched, and how highly I am honoured, by a love so
disinterested and self-immolating. My best return to it is
perfect frankness. Each nation has its customs. The customs
of yours do not allow you to wed me; the customs of mine are
equally opposed to such a union between those of races so
widely differing. On the other hand, though not deficient in
courage among my own people, or amid dangers with which I am
familiar, I cannot, without a shudder of horror, think of
constructing a bridal home in the heart of some dismal chaos,
with all the elements of nature, fire and water, and mephitic
gases, at war with each other, and with the probability that at
some moment, while you were busied in cleaving rocks or
conveying vril into lamps, I should be devoured by a krek which
your operations disturbed from its hiding-place. I, a mere
Tish, do not deserve the love of a Gy, so brilliant, so learned,
so potent as yourself. Yes, I do not deserve that love, for I
cannot return it."
Zee released my hand, rose to her feet, and turned her face
away to hide her emotions; then she glided noiselessly along
the room, and paused at the threshold. Suddenly, impelled as
by a new thought, she returned to my side and said, in a
whispered tone,-
"You told me you would speak with perfect frankness. With
perfect frankness, then, answer me this question. If you
cannot love me, do you love another?"
"Certainly, I do not."
"You do not love Taee's sister?"
"I never saw her before last night."
141"That is no answer. Love is swifter than vril. You hesitate
to tell me. Do not think it is only jealousy that prompts me
to caution you. If the Tur's daughter should declare love to
you- if in her ignorance she confides to her father any
preference that may justify his belief that she will woo you,
he will have no option but to request your immediate
destruction, as he is specially charged with the duty of
consulting the good of the community, which could not allow the
daughter of the Vril-ya to wed a son of the Tish-a, in that
sense of marriage which does not confine itself to union of the
souls. Alas! there would then be for you no escape. She has
no strength of wing to uphold you through the air; she has no
science wherewith to make a home in the wilderness. Believe
that here my friendship speaks, and that my jealousy is
silent."
With these words Zee left me. And recalling those words, I
thought no more of succeeding to the throne of the Vril-ya, or
of the political, social, and moral reforms I should institute
in the capacity of Absolute Sovereign.
